Grants talk:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/General Support Fund/Wikimedia Canada 2025-2027

Independent Revenu Sources

Dear Committee Members,

I wanted to take a moment and share 4 grants that Wikimedia Canada received this year for two projects and two events.

Project Grants from Québec and Canada

• 25,000 CAD from the Ministère de la Culture et des Communications du Québec for the project "Améliorer la découvrabilité des contenus littéraires francophones grâce aux projets Wikimédia".

• 60,000 CAD from the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) for the project "Navigating the Digital World: Atikamekw Youth's Online Literacy Toolkit (and Podcast)".

For the 2024 Wikiconvention francophone held in Québec City

• 5,000 CAD from the Secrétariat du Québec aux relations canadiennes for the organization of the Wikiconvention francophone.

• 2,000 CAD from the Consulat de France to support the colloquium "Journée Communs du Numérique et IA" held during the pre-conferences of the Wikiconvention francophone.

Please do not hesitate to contact me or @Louis Germain (WMCA) if you have any question.

Best,

Michael David MILLER, President of Wikimedia Canada BiblioQC (talk) 20:21, 3 November 2024 (UTC)

Regional Committee feedback and questions

@Louis Germain (WMCA) and BiblioQC: Thanks for your proposal for the General Support Fund on behalf of Wikimedia Canada. The Regional Fund Committee has completed an initial review of the proposal, and had just a few comments and questions to support their review that I will summarize below:

• Thanks for providing some additional information on additional funding that the chapter has received. We appreciate your organization's efforts to broaden its funding sources in both large and smaller funding opportunites, which support greater stability for your organization's programs and operations. Coupled with your chapter's past funding work, it demonstrates that Wikimedia Canada prioritizes efforts that support its long-term sustainability.
• When evaluating the budget, the committee requests more specific information around compensation for the staffing and consulting budget. In particular, the committee would like the budget to be revised to understand the specific budgets for salary set aside for the different roles named:
  • Executive Director,
  • 2 Program Officers,
  • 1 Communication & Philanthropic Development Officer, and
  • 1 part time consultant in 2025 for the ongoing project with the Atikamekw indigenous community
• The committee observed that the proposed metrics for participation/editors in your evaluation plan have decreased significantly compared to the evaluation plan for Year 3 of your current General Support Funding work, but the content-related outcomes on different Wikimedia projects have conversely increased by a significant degree. The committee agrees that these changes are not necessarily problematic and that there may be very good reasons for these changes, but that those reasons are not immediately clear from the proposal. Would you be willing to provide more context and reflection from the chapter on why the evaluation plan has changed in this manner since last year?

Please let me know if you have any questions or needs for clarity around the committee's feedback. To support the Regional Committee's review, please respond to committee feedback by Tuesday, November 19th. On behalf of the Regional Committee, I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 20:54, 8 November 2024 (UTC)

Dear I JethroBT (WMF) (talk), dear Regional Committee,

Thanks for your questions and feedback.

1- We thought it was important to share with you our efforts to develop independent revenue streams. These initiatives are playing a key role in transforming our business model, enabling us to move towards greater financial independence. By diversifying our funding sources, we aim to reduce reliance on external grants and ensure the sustainability of our activities in the long term. We believe this shift will provide us with greater flexibility to pursue our mission and increase our impact across various projects.

That's why we believe we need this extra support from the Foundation to achieve our goals.

2- Our Annual Salary Plan has been sent to I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) by email, as it contains a few confidential informations. He's going to share it with you.

3- Over the past year, our chapter has placed a greater emphasis on outcomes related to content quality, depth, and impact across various Wikimedia projects, rather than simply tracking participation numbers or editor counts. While participation is an important aspect of our work, we have observed that the sheer number of active editors does not always correlate directly with the long-term quality of contributions or the sustainability of content growth. As a result, we have adjusted our focus toward metrics that better capture the broader impact of the content being created, curated, and maintained.

We are now placing more value on high-quality contributions, diverse and underrepresented content areas, and long-term sustainability, which has influenced how we set our evaluation goals.

I also would like to add that, in our strategic development plan, we prioritize working with major Canadian GLAM institutions. In doing so, we aim to foster a better understanding of open knowledge issues within this ecosystem. Therefore, we felt it would be more meaningful to measure the outcomes of these initiatives rather than simply tracking the number of participants or the number of edits.

For example, we will be collaborating with the University of Ottawa on a project focused on the LGBT+ community, which will strengthen institutional capacities and enhance the impact and stature of Canadian research on these issues at both national and international levels.

We believe that WMCA's contribution to these topics is essential. Positioning ourselves as a key player in this debate allows us to play a vital role in shaping the discourse around open knowledge, diversity, and inclusion. By partnering with such institutions, we aim to not only raise awareness but also to actively contribute to the advancement of research and resources that support these important social issues.

This is more how we see our role.

I hope that these answers will help you to better assess our request for financing. I remain available for any further questions you may have. Louis Germain (WMCA) (talk) 15:42, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

General Support Fund proposal approved in the amount of 1,091,800 CAD

@Louis Germain (WMCA) and BiblioQC: Congratulations/Félicitations! Your grant is approved in the amount of 1,091,800 CAD with a grant term starting 1 January 2025 and ending 31 December 2027. Annual disbursements for your funding were approved for the following:

Year 1: 343,000 CAD

Year 2: 363,500 CAD

Year 3: 385,300 CAD

The committee supported full funding for Wikimedia Canada over the next three years, as proposed. The committee recognizes Wikimedia Canada’s interest in providing more holistic support and opportunities across Canadian communities, and that its funding up to this point has made broader engagement across the country challenging.

The committee also appreciated your growing work to support the participation and coverage of Indigenous communities and other underrepresented groups in the movement. Regarding the chapter’s interest in starting a WikiClub focused on older adults, this model of community engagement has worked well for many affiliates in Eastern Europe, so if supportive, we can help connect you to affiliates who may be able to share some practices and events that they have found effective. Finally, we appreciate Wikimedia Canada’s continued efforts and past success at securing external funding for some of its programmatic work, and encourage you to reach out if a recommendation or other support from the Foundation would be helpful around any funding requests you plan to pursue.

We look forward to Wikimedia Canada’s contributions and achievements over the next three years. On behalf of the Regional Committee, Redwidgeon (talk) 17:30, 12 December 2024 (UTC)